The Worked All Europe contest is a great way to make some DX contacts from North America with a novel twist - the QTC feature in which lists of previous contacts are exchanged for extra points. Check it out on the WAE website. There are several state QSO parties, as well - Colorado, Tennessee, and Arkansas.

BULLETINS

Hurricane Isaac is due to make landfall on the evening of August 28th near New Orleans. The Hurricane Watch Net is active on 14.325 MHz with 7.268 MHz and 3.950 MHz as backup or reporting frequencies. It may still be active through the weekend as well as local and regional emergency nets responding to communications emergencies. Please avoid all frequencies with emergency traffic.

"Don't look back, something might be gaining on you!" so sayeth the great Satchel Paige. If that something was a solar flare, this new method of using radioactive decay rates to predict flares could at least give you a little warning. Just 13 years ago, a huge flare had a dramatic affect on not only the ionosphere but integrated circuits so the ability to look ahead for the effects of solar neutrinos can pay big benefits right here on Earth.

Times Microwave (Wallingford, CT) has been announced as the supplier of feed line for WRTC2014, donating the necessary cable for all WRTC stations. Station Committee leader, Mark Pride K1RX, notes "It is mind boggling to realize that the 59 WRTC stations will need almost 6 miles of coax cable. The support of Times Microwave is a tremendous help in our efforts to equip each station with first-rate materials and stay within our budget." Times LMR®-400 cable will be used for the low-loss feed line to the Cycle 24 model TX38 tribander. LMR®-240 cable will be used for the 80 meter and 40 meter dipoles. WRTC2014 Chairman, Doug Grant, K1DG says, "We are very pleased to have the support of a New England company for this critical station component. It is a great example of companies in the local community coming together to help make WRTC2014 successful." Robert Perelman, Director, Commercial Sales and Marketing at Times Microwave Systems, explained the decision to be involved with WRTC2014, "This is a great opportunity to demonstrate the quality and value of our products to the Amateur Radio community in such a prestigious event." (Thanks, WRTC2014 Co-Chair, Randy K5ZD)

Vili OH3VV is shown here on the annual CCF Cruise. Vili is 86 years old and active in the CCF - read all about it in the Pileup! (Photo courtesy Pileup!)

Contest Club FinlandPileUP! magazine's latest issue is out and includes a number of thought provoking articles on the future of contesting, contest ethics, and a historical review of the first six WRTC events. (Thanks, Editor-in Charge, Timo OH1NOA/OJØM)

The CW Open contest has been moved to the coming weekend (Sep 1-2) and has added support for live contest score reporting on the On-line Contest Score Server! website. Al AD6E reports, "Dmitri RW4WM has graciously added "CWOPS-CWOPEN" as a (supported) contest... (it) should work with N1MM and TR4W. WinTest and Writelog are not compatible at this point." During supported contests, anyone can watch the scores pile up in near real time on Dmitri's website.

The article "Plug-and-Play Satellites" in the August issue of IEEE Spectrum discusses the new small-satellite architecture. This modular approach enables a much wider range of organizations to participate in satellite technology. The article also includes the CubeSats that frequently incorporate Amateur Radio for control, telemetry, or communication.

A great example of John Troster W6ISQ's legendary wit appeared in the September issue of the Potomac Valley Radio Club newsletter, entitled "Beat PVRC...But Not Too Badly". Searching for W6ISQ articles in the online QST archives available to ARRL members will turn up many of his articles - both technical and funny-bone tickling.

Looks like Field Day! This is Manley W8PDB operating portable with a Hallicrafters S-20 Sky Champion, a homebrew 6L6 transmitter, and what looks to be a TU-5B military surplus tuning unit. (Photo courtesy K8KXT)

The dates of the Classic Exchange antique radio contests have been swapped in September since the QST column was published - the phone weekend is now Sep 16-17 and the CW weekend Sep 23-24. Since these rigs can take a while to warm up and stabilize, we thought you might want to get started in plenty of time! (Thanks, Ron K2RP)

QST Managing Editor, Joel Kleinman N1BKE, died from injuries sustained in a house fire on August 18th. Joel managed a lot of competing interests to make QST consistently readable and enjoyable to ARRL members. As reported in the Record-Journal story on this tragedy, ARRL Publishing Manager Steve Ford said, "He was the quiet man behind the scenes, shouldering much of the burden that comes with creating 164 pages of new content every month. Joel set a high standard for all who may follow him."

Web Site of the Week - If a favorite website seems to be gone, offline, reworked, or you just plain forgot how to find it, the Wayback Machine is your friend. The Internet Archive organization's goal is to capture and store everything - text, graphics, music, anything that existed in digital format online. Be careful as you can spend hours in the "stacks"! (Thanks, Derward KD5WWI)

WORD TO THE WISE

Unique - when you get your log checking report and it shows a call in your log as "unique" it means that the log-checking software was unable to find any other log claiming a contact with that call nor could it determine conclusively that it was miscopied. Most contests give full credit for contacts with unique call signs although most of the them are too badly miscopied to cross-reference.

SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

Tim N6WIN has published a webpage for the K6Z 2011 California QSO Party Multi-Multi County Expedition to Inyo County, California. An all time new record was set for the category, beating the old record set in 1999 by over 200k points. Pictures, station description, link to the 3830 write up, and final results after log checking are included. The CQP is coming up at the beginning of October.

I guess a lightning strike webpage counts as "sights and sounds" - if you're close enough! Several websites about lightning were contributed as inspiration struck last week:

Lots of these sites have more to look at then lightning, as well...what's that I hear? (Thanks, Jim W1FMR, Bud W2RU, Paul WB2ABD)

That's Dennis on the left and Dennis on the right - got that? W1UF (L) and W1UE (R) visited the WRTC2014 booth at the Boxboro convention recently. (Photo courtesy WRTC2014)

This video demonstrates that there is no power greater than sibling rivalry. (Thanks, Tim K3LR)

On August 15, 1977, the "Big Ear" antenna at Ohio State University, now decommissioned, detected the "Wow!" signal. Even today, we are still unsure whether the signal was of extraterrestrial origins.

RESULTS AND RECORDS

ARRL Contest Branch Manager, Sean KX9X checks in with an update from Newington. "Certificates for the 2011 ARRL 10 GHz and Up Contest were shipped on Monday, 20 August. The next contest awards to be processed will be the 2011 September VHF Contest and the 2011 ARRL EME Competition. The log submission deadline for the 2012 IARU contest has passed and log checking is now in full swing. The Contest Branch is now preparing for the 2012 Sweepstakes. Sweepstakes Manager, Larry K5OT is working the field to ensure every op that's interested will be QRV for the November event. Speaking of Sweepstakes, the 2011 SS plaques have been ordered! Once they arrive from the engraver (about 6 weeks or so), we'll begin shipping them out. Sweepstakes certificates aren't far behind, either, and like all of the other contest awards we've issued this year, the Sweepstakes certificate has been redesigned. We hope you like 'em.

These are the folks you'll be looking for in the November Sweepstakes - the Contest Club of Ontario shown here at their August 25th barbeque. Every one of the four new Ontario sections was represented in the group! A full resolution version and many other photos of the event are available online. (Peter West Photo - VE3HG)

From the CQ World Wide Contest Direct, Bob K3EST, "The *official, corrected* *final results* for the *SSB *CQ WW contest are now posted on the CQ magazine website. The *official, corrected final results* for the *CW* CQ WW contest will be posted on the CQ magazine website to coincide with the release of the September digital edition, on or around September 1, 2012. [The CW results are now available - Ed.] *The **official, corrected UBN/NIL SSB and CW reports* *are now available**at CQWW.com* (*NO new passwords are required*)." I think he *means* it!

The results of the 2012 Minnesota QSO Party have been published on the Minnesota Wireless Association home page. Participation was just a wee bit up but nevertheless at an all time high with some incredibly close races in several categories. We had quite a few in-state and out-of-state multi-operator efforts including some special event call signs; resulting in some obviously enjoyable group events. An article from Kenny K2KW is included, offering his insights on how he approached MNQP as a first timer and he was a category winner. (Thanks, Mark WAØMHJ)

The results of the 2012 DRCG Long Distance Contest - LDC RTTY are online and certificates can be downloaded from the same web page. (Thanks, LDC Contest Director, Goetz DJ3IW and Bernd DC3HB, DRCG Contest Manager)

OPERATING TIP

Your logging software may have some sample message or macro files to ease the process of configuring the program for a new contest. For example, in the recent ARRL Rookie Roundup RTTY contest, Larry K8UT created some function key messages aimed at the newcomer - both to RTTY contesting and to the Rookie Roundup, specifically. There are files for both N1MM and Writelog. Your editor made good use of these for both reasons! The use of the files in N1MM has been added to N4ZR's "Getting Started" guide to N1MM, as well. Check around on the home page for your software or ask fellow club members if they might have some files to help get you started.

TECHNICAL TOPICS AND INFORMATION

Up, up, and away! Steve NU7T has collected sources of extendable and fixed antenna support poles from a few feet to 65 feet and up. You will be amazed at the variety and resourcefulness of what can be used to hang a skyhook!

Troubleshooting is hard enough without having to follow 10-mil (or smaller) PCB traces under and around other components. This Instructables project shows you how to put your finger right on the desired trace!

Everybody can get in on geomagnetic field measuring - all you need is this handy proton precession magnetometer! It's actually quite buildable - did I hear someone say, "Science project!"? From the EDN description, "This article describes a proton precession magnetometer (PPM) for monitoring the Earth's magnetic field...By measuring very small changes in the Earth's magnetic field, one can also observe the diurnal variation of the geomagnetic field, typically on the order of tens of nano Tesla. Larger changes in the geomagnetic field are often related to solar activity. The Sun can send out massive amounts of charged particles as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)." Kind of a seismograph for the ionosphere!

Gregg W6IZT has a good way of using inexpensive plastic "dog bone" insulators to hold up Beverages and other low horizontal wires. "I use a bolt that has a machine screw thread on one end and a wood screw thread on the other (available at hardware stores). Drill the end of the dog bone to accept the machine thread and thread the wood screw into a post, tree or whatever."

When you are trying to disassemble triband Yagi traps and find the manufacturer has "dimpled" them to secure the cover in place, John G3JVC/GM3JVC turns to the advice of Ron GW3YDX. "Drill out the dimples, taking care not to drill into the internal concentric plastic insulator of the traps. Then by using blocks of wood and applying gentle force, slide the traps apart without resorting to bending the contact strip between the element and the outer cover of the trap, and thereby risking its fracture.."

In case there were any questions about the correct way to attach guy clips. "Never saddle a dead horse" - the saddle always goes on the "live" cable under load. (Thanks, Hal N4GG)

"CQ 10 centimeters, CQ 10 centimeters..." Two articles in Popular Science and Nature describe a room-temperature MASER (Microwave Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation) built 60 years after the first MASERs were constructed. It won't be long until these find their way into the ham shack - probably of VHF+ contesters trying for a few extra grids!

Gene AD3F's Trylon tower has angle steel legs, making securing cables to the leg a breeze. "To attach (the cables) to the tower I wrapped a single length of #12 solid insulated house wire around the coax bundle, twisted it a couple of times, then ran a wire end through a pre-drilled hole and twisted both ends together. With this method I can re-enter the bundle to change or add cables, then reseal a few more times before I have to replace the wire."

Bonding coax shields to a tower at top and bottom is good practice for preventing lightning damage but doing so without an expensive grounding kit or letting water into the braid is not simple. Dick WC1M suggests this procedure: "It consists of a long UHF barrel connector with a metal spring clamp (a U-shaped piece of metal) tightly wrapped around the middle and screwed down. The other end of the spring clamp is screwed to a ground rod clamp large enough to go around a tower leg. The interface between the barrel connector and the metal clamp is waterproofed with coax seal and tape. I cut the feed line to the antenna near the fitting, attach PL-259 connectors to each free end, screw them into the barrel connector, and waterproof."

Here's another handy cheap-and-effective project that uses a single hex inverter IC to make four different test gadgets!

Technical Web Site of the Week - The podcast "Chat With the Designers" often has a lot of good material to share. For example the last two "issues" on troubleshooting are sub-titled, "Basic guidance on troubleshooting circuits that should be working ... but are not." I think we all have a few of those. There are more than 30 other podcasts available!

CONVERSATION

Accounting for Technology

Much is made lately about the problems created by too many stations pouncing on a high-precision spot at once. Even highly skilled operators find the ensuing blur of zero-beat signals impossible to unravel quickly. Without a reliable rhythm, the callers get increasingly out of sync until no one can hear the CQing station or the answering station and the whole pileups dissolves in chaos. Rate for everyone falls to zero and that's no fun! This has always been a problem with 'phone operation since the voices are all spread across the same spectrum but now it's an issue with CW and RTTY contesting, too.

We have an embarrassment of riches - radios with master oscillators accurate to plus or minus 10 Hz, worldwide spotting networks distributing spotting information in milliseconds to thousands of stations, and automated decoders using sophisticated signal processing to simultaneously translate hundreds of transmissions. Not to mention effective antennas and receivers and transmitters enabling us to hear and call stations around the world. These are the right problems to have! But they are still problems. Technology isn't going to go away (hopefully) and participation in radiosport of nearly all types is up so how do we manage the problem of "too many, too close"? By changing our strategies and tactics.

Here is the N3RD team, fresh from what looks to be a 2nd-place finish in the WAE CW contest at N3RS. Left to right are Sig N3RS, Sergey NW2Q, and Dave N3RD. (Photo by N3RD)

We've talked about this problem from the search-and-pounce perspective before. You probably can't count on jumping on a spot before anybody else - the information is basically available instantaneously everywhere there is Internet connectivity. i.e. - 95% of contest stations. With modern radios, you can't count on being the most accurate because everyone will be transmitting within 100 Hz of the frequency in the spot. Unless you have an RBS (Really Big Station) or you probably won't be much louder than the rest of the pileup on a consistent basis, either.

Your strategy has to be "stand out in the crowd" and the tactics available to you are timing and pitch, just as they have always been. Call a little behind everybody else: not so much that you cover up the CQing station but enough so that a letter or two sticks out. QNY - spread out! On phone - maybe a few hundred hertz. On CW - one or two hundred hertz. I'm not sure what works on digital! Hit 'em where they ain't, said Hall of Famer Wee Willie Keeler. Who knew he was a contester, too!

If you are a CQing station, just being loud isn't enough anymore, you have to worry about workability, too. To be sure, "alligators" have always been with us - a loud station with an operator not up to the task of unwinding a big pileup. It's just that technology has amplified and spread the problem. Previously, being loud also generally meant being workable. Now the CQing station has to actively manage the zero-beat issue. (This is not just a problem for rare stations - even garden-variety stations can experience it, particularly when they are "fresh meat" on a band.)

It is often said that the optimum size pileup is one station calling: no interference, no disruption, one caller with every CQ. Somewhere between that elusive optimum and chaos lies a manageable pileup. If your pileups are packed too tightly, think about how to limit the number of callers that will come to your frequency or figure out how to get them to call across a small range of frequencies. There isn't much you can do about operators posting spots to your station but if automated spots are causing trouble, think about how you can operate to minimize being detected by the decoders - not sending CQ, just your call sign, for example. Combined with occasional small shifts in transmit frequency, that may spread the pileup just enough keep things moving. This is just one of many possible techniques.

What about a station that is not loud - such as on a long or particularly difficult path? A DXpedition will operate split when pileups are large or signals are weak. This generally isn't a desirable option during contests, but sometimes there may be no other way to work stations. If you have to, you have to - just try not to clobber somebody else's run frequency and do it only when you feel you have no other choice.

The point is not to write a manual for operating with big pileups. The point is that we are going to have to accommodate new technology by devising operating strategies and tactics that account for that new technology. It's not enough to demand that other operators behave as if there wasn't any new technology - and you won't be successful anyway. Bright, savvy operators are already thinking and planning for it.

73, Ward NØAX

CONTESTS

29 August through 11 September

An expanded, downloadable version of QST's Contest Corral in PDF format is available. Check the sponsor's Web site for information on operating time restrictions and other instructions.

Free of charge to ARRL members:Subscribe to The ARRL Letter (weekly digest of news and information), the ARES E-Letter (monthly public service and emergency communications news), Division and Section news -- and much more!

ARRL offers a wide array of productsto enhance your enjoyment of Amateur Radio. Visit the site often for new publications, specials and sales.

Donate to the fund of your choice -- support programs not funded by member dues!

Reprint permission can be obtained by sending email to permission@arrl.org with a description of the material and the reprint publication.

The ARRL Contest Update is published every other Wednesday (26 times each year). ARRL members may subscribe at no cost or unsubscribe by editing their Member Data Page as described at http://www.arrl.org/contests/update/.